I receive quite a lot email from Buddhist practitioners and other people. Questions are everything between zazen, Buddhism and daily life. Sometimes they bash me, sometimes they praise me. I love to receive email and I'm doing my best to answer to them all, although I don't know anything. But I think I have learned something during these 15 years of practicing zazen.
And girls and boys, this is important: I'm learning all the time, everyone of us is learning. I make mistakes, and oh boy, I make them a lot. It's part of zazen, to learn to let go of important and non-important things. To fall down, to stand up again. Fuck, that's called life! My Zen teacher Peter Rocca taught to me some really important lessons recently, he really helped to put me back to Earth.
But anyway, here's one email badly translated from Finnish to English from someone who wrote me today:
"Hi! I've been watching your videos about Buddhism and I'm interested of the human side in those. I've been meditating for some time and I have noticed that I'm suffocating my feelings (I've been doing this since I was a child) I'm 18 years old high school student. What means do you have to offer to me for opening those mental locks inside of me and to face those feelings from now on?"
and my answer badly translated from Finnish to English:
"Hi *,
thank you for your email and questions.
Your questions are unfamiliar to me, and as a Buddhist, I don't know anything about mental locks or facing emotions or suffocating them. Zazen is not some method to know oneself or some therapy method. When I was 18 years old high school student, I was interested of women, skateboarding and snowboarding. And just practicing zazen. So, I don't have any advices to you regarding your questions, I'm sorry.
More info about practicing zazen you can find from our website. But I'm happy to answer to your questions!
Good luck with your studies!
With best wishes,
Uku"
Lately I've been listening quite a lot of Rancid. When I was in high school, I was a little punk in my violet skatepunk haircut, Rancid was very important to me. It still is. So, concerning this blog post, here's a great song from Rancid (lyrics below):
I saw an old man on the street
he was in a dumpster lookin’ for somethin’ to eat
he moved so slow like a dyin’ dream
like a machinist who got caught in the machine
I saw this lady and she was cryin’
she said it’s hard when someone you love is dyin’
I saw this kid who was about 5 years old
he was in the park all alone he was cold
there’s something coming around
as wicked as it may seem
as wicked as anything could be
I know this girl she’s barely alive
she’s all haggard she’s only twenty-five
she said she never had a friend before
I said “hey girl I’ll be your friend but who’s keepin’ score”
I saw this other little girl on the phone
her mother comforts her from far from home
the little girl was very hesitant
her best friend lie dead on the pavement
I always end up back on the hill
lookin’ down at the landfill
I always go there when I can
my friend Marty said Tim you’re a lucky man
2 comments:
Hi Uku, hate to say it but I think you answered the question really badly.
How to open mental locks? Stay with your body particurly when the emotions become uncomfortable and breathe. Notice how you don't want to be here and watch as your mind tries to find a way to flee, maybe through humour or some other story.
If your zazen isn't including emotions then you are missing out a hell of a lot. if you can't recognize your own emotions then you will find it hard to see them in others. And that is what compassion is all about.
Hi Seaspray,
thank you for your comment! To me, your comment is just like some New age self-taught Namby Bamby Buddhism. Zazen has nothing to do with it.
We have emotions and by sitting zazen we can notice them. Girls, skate and snowboarding is far more important. And when practicing zazen at the same time, maybe there are answers. Or maybe not. But I don't think some spiritual advices will do any good.
Best regards,
Uku
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